Presently, titanium is produced commercially by converting titania to titanium chloride and reducing the titanium chloride through the Kroll or Hunter processes. The cost of production by these processes is much higher than is desirable for many commercial uses of titanium. The production of titanium by reducing titanium chloride is a multi-step process. First, titania is converted to titanium chloride in the presence of carbon at about 1,200.degree. K. Then, the titanium chloride is reduced by magnesium or sodium at temperatures in the range of 1,000.degree. K. to 1,300.degree. K. The titanium metal is separated from the magnesium chloride or sodium chloride and a number of other impurities in the reaction products by leaching or vacuum distilling to get sponge titanium.
The cost of producing titanium sponge using conventional processes is high because of the large consumption of energy and the expensive starting materials. These conventional processes will consume, for example, about 40 kilowatt-hours for every kilogram of titanium produced. The sponge titanium can contain up to 1% percent impurities that may include contamination from the steel reactor walls, impurities from the titanium chloride, residual gases in the reactor and magnesium or sodium residues. In addition, these processes are slow and the titanium chloride, magnesium and sodium are hazardous and expensive starting materials.